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Gallery Talk: Through the Eyes of an Artist: Pieter Coecke’s 1533 Journey to Istanbul

A woodcut showing a large group of people outside celebrating on and around a small hill. A female caryatid, or column, is at left.
Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Netherlandish, Customs and Fashions of the Turks (detail), 1553. Woodcut printed from 10 blocks on joined sheets of antique laid paper. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Acquisition Fund for Prints, 2011.11.

Gallery Talk

In-Person
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

This event does not require registration; see further details below.

In 1533, Netherlandish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1550) traveled to Istanbul, presumably accompanying Habsburg ambassador Cornelis de Schepper on his first diplomatic mission. Twenty years later, Coecke’s widow, Mayken Verhulst, printed a monumental woodcut frieze by Coecke chronicling his journey to the Ottoman city. We now invite you to follow in Coecke’s footsteps and travel together with Talitha Maria G. Schepers, curator of the exhibition Imagine Me and You: Dutch and Flemish Encounters with the Islamic World, 1450–1750 (May 18–August 18, 2024), in a close examination of this monumental work.

Led by:
Talitha Maria G. Schepers, Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow, Division of European and American Art, and exhibition curator

Please check in with museum staff at the Visitor Services desk in the Calderwood Courtyard to request to join the talk. Talks are limited to 18 people and are available on a first-come, first-served basis; no registration is required.

The Harvard Art Museums are now offering free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

Support for Imagine Me and You: Dutch and Flemish Encounters with the Islamic World, 1450–1750 is provided by the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Support Fund and the Melvin R. Seiden and Janine Luke Fund for Publications and Exhibitions. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.